posted 07-02-2026 10:39 AM               

Heritage Presents the Estate of Alan Bean in Landmark Space Exploration Auction July 23-24

From Mercury and Gemini through Apollo and Skylab, museum-caliber artifacts illuminate the defining moments of America's space program

Heritage announces its upcoming Space Exploration Signature Auction on July 23-24, featuring The Estate of Moonwalker and Artist Alan Bean. Heritage is honored to present an extraordinary collection of artifacts, documents and memorabilia spanning the history of American spaceflight. From the pioneering days of Mercury and Gemini to the triumphs of Apollo and the Space Shuttle era, this auction brings together treasures that capture the courage, ingenuity and spirit of exploration that define our journey into space. 

Alan LaVern Bean (1932-2018) stands among the most singular figures in the history of human spaceflight: a naval aviator, test pilot, aeronautical engineer, Apollo astronaut, Skylab commander and, ultimately, the only artist to paint the Moon from the lived experience of walking across the lunar surface, which he accomplished on November 19, 1969 –becoming just the fourth human to do so.

Four years later, Bean returned to space as commander of Skylab 3, the second crewed mission to America's first space station. At the time, the mission set a new record for human duration in space and helped establish the operational model for long-duration spaceflight. After retiring from the Navy and later from NASA, in 1981, Bean cultivated an extraordinary second career as an artist. He devoted himself to painting the Apollo experience, not as an observer imagining the Moon but as a participant preserving memory, texture and emotional truth. 

A highlight of the auction is Alan Bean's lunar surface-flown LMP wrist checklist with Playboy magazine prank images and hand-drawn cartoons. Carried by Alan Bean to the lunar surface and used during mankind's second Moon landing, this cuff-mounted checklist is one of the most visually compelling and culturally famous artifacts from Apollo 12: a serious piece of lunar field equipment that also preserves one of the best-known private jokes ever smuggled onto the Moon. Bidding begins at $100,000.

Another highlight is Alan Bean's Apollo 12 lunar module flown and surface-used geological hammer, later used by Bean in the creation of his lunar artwork. Bidding begins at $75,000.

Auction highlights include:

Alan Bean's lunar-module-flown and surface-worn PLSS patch remnants, comprised of an American flag patch, a partial NASA insignia patch, three partial "A. BEAN" name tag sections and a narrow metallic or metalized strip mounted above. Bidding starts at $50,000.

Alan Bean's lunar-surface-worn spacesuit patch remnants were used by Bean in the creation of his paintings. These textile fragments represent what remained after Bean cut up the original patches for use in his post-NASA fine art practice. Bidding begins at $50,000.

On mission, Alan Bean wore this NASA A7LB spacesuit pair of extravehicular gloves. Manufactured by the International Latex Corporation (ILC), these gloves were specifically adapted from the late Apollo lunar landing missions to handle station maintenance, film retrieval and emergency repair tasks in low Earth orbit. Bidding will begin at $50,000.

A Thiokol XLR99 rocket engine for the North American X-15: Developed in the late 1950s, the XLR99 was the world's first fully throttleable man-rated liquid rocket engine and among the few large liquid-fueled rocket engines ever installed in a piloted aircraft. Bidding will begin at $50,000.

An Apollo 14 lunar-surface-used camera-lens dust brush: Bidding will begin at $30,000.

An Apollo 11 lunar module flown section of the Wright Flyer's wing fabric: Coming directly from The Armstrong Family Collection™, this relic spans two monumental events. This square section of muslin fabric comes from the left wing of the Wright Brothers' Flyer; it was flown as part of the first successful powered, controlled flight at Kitty Hawk in 1903, and remarkably, it also journeyed to the surface of the moon during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969. Bidding begins at $25,000.

Alan Bean's legendary handwritten "CDR'S CREW LOG" book: This is the actual in-flight diary that Commander Bean kept on a near-daily basis from July 28 (day 209) through September 21 (day 264) in 1975. It offers a never-before-offered look into the daily activities and sometimes very personal thoughts of this space veteran during a long-term mission aboard an orbiting space station. Bidding begins at $25,000.

The auction will take place July 23-24 and is available for online bidding here.

posted 07-27-2026 05:12 AM               

Unfortunately I can't say, but on the hardware front, the later version of the purge valve with the associated connector (lot 50028) looked a bargain - just missing the red ball and cable to make it complete. The ITMG glove assemblies in both this sale and in the Sotheby's sale were very reasonable, too.

posted 07-27-2026 04:21 PM               

Even so, I agree. They are, as far as I am aware, the only flown pair of A7 gloves in private hands, and, in opinion, the bargain of the sale. My estimate was even higher. Like going back to the good old days of the Superior sales...

posted 07-29-2026 12:14 PM               

Astronaut Alan Bean's moon artifacts-turned-artist's tools 'hammer' in $1M at auction

The unusual tools that an astronaut-turned-artist famously used to infuse not just what it felt to walk on the moon, but pieces of the moon itself, have now commanded auction results higher than some of the works they helped to create.

Heritage Auctions' latest space exploration-themed auction included consignments from the estate of Apollo 12 moonwalker and artist Alan Bean. The two-day sale included 660 lots, of which about 40 came from the collection of the fourth person to step onto the lunar surface. Of those, seven were complete artifacts, cuttings or shavings that came from Bean's career as an astronaut and later became integral to his painting the moon.